Seeing New Investment Fund
Indigenous people in Australia traditionally supply Kakadu Plum to companies that extract compounds for cosmetic manufacturers. Under current arrangements, these Indigenous suppliers remain anonymous and receive only a small portion of the profit. Thamarrurr Plums, an Aboriginal-owned supplier of wild-harvested Kakadu Plum, is changing this dynamic. With a board composed of Indigenous women from clan groups across the Thamarrurr region (surrounding the remote community of Wadeye), Thamarrurr Plums consistently delivers high-quality products to the wholesale market, providing seasonal employment for over 100 Indigenous harvesters.
Thamarrurr Development Corporation have partnered with Rare Pharm (Australia), a supplier of cosmetic ingredients. This joint venture will enable Thamarrurr Plums to produce Kakadu Plum extracts in the Northern Territory using Rare Pharm’s intellectual property. Rare Pharm has invested in developing suitable technology for this project, ensuring that the extraction process is simple and requires relatively inexpensive equipment.
Seeding New Investment funding from RDA NT and the NT Government has supported the development of business and operational plans to progress this project. The initiative empowers Indigenous women from the Thamarrurr region to produce and brand their extracts, participate in marketing activities, and share profits at the point of sale to the cosmetics industry. The initial phase will produce extracts at a scale sufficient for industry samples and design a facility for commercial-scale production in the NT. These samples will facilitate pre-orders, potentially funding the commercial-scale facility.
This project will enhance capacity and industry knowledge, supporting broader growth plans for the bush products industry in the Thamarrurr region. Additionally, there is potential for further collaboration between Thamarrurr Plums and Rare Pharm to bring other botanicals suitable for skincare or beauty ingestibles to market.
Maningrida Wild Foods is Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporations bush foods brand. The Enterprise has now been running for five years selling wild-harvested native foods (such as Kakadu Plums) and processed products (such as spice mix) that have been sourced by Aboriginal...
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